On this day in history

Yes, on this day in history, November 22, 1963, more than half-a-century ago, John F. Kennedy, then President of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The assassin was allegedly Lee Harvey Oswald, but the circumstances surrounding this event, the consequences, the actual facts have been long obscured in conspiracy, fantasy, and delusion. We'll never know what really happened and why, and I'm not sure that it really matters in the end. Sure, I was an impressionable adolescent when it happened, and, yes, I think about that day from time to time (and sometimes when the date rolls around again), and, yes, it makes me wonder. (I told you: I wonder a lot; I always have and with each additional year of my life, I am given more reason to as well.)

So what am I wondering about this time? Simple: why do only Americans assassinate their major political figures? Sure, every once in a long while, someone flips out in the Middle East or in Israel and a well-known politician or Prime Minister is killed, but it's almost always someone "from the other side". No, Americans are pretty unique in that they elect someone to the highest office in the land, and then, later, for myriad, stupid reasons, they decide to end their term of office prematurely. Think about it:

• Including the current one, the US has had 44 presidents thus far.
• Four presidents have definitely been assassinated: Lincoln (#16), Garfield (#20), McKinley (#25), and Kennedy (#35).
• Two more presidents are at least rumored to have been assassinated: Taylor (#12) and Harding (#29).
• Two additional presidents were injured in assassination attempts: Roosevelt (#26) and Reagan (#40).
• And, there have been 13 assassination attempts on presidents not mentioned in the points above.

That's a pretty impressive list, if you ask me: 21 of 44 (that's 47%) have been killed, injured, or attempts have been made on their lives. Just how democratic is this? With the exception of Johnson (#36), every single president since Kennedy has been at least threatened with assassination. That doesn't make you wonder? It makes me wonder, I can assure you of that.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know what to think about that. My first reaction is, "the US is one violent society." Another thought that crosses my mind is, "why is assassination (well, murder, actually) considered a solution to anything?" More generally, "what does this say about the state of American democracy?" And the cynical side of me wants to know why America is held up as an example for anything political? Be honest. Who really wants a job in which almost half the holders have been murdered or someone attempted to murder them? And the country isn't even 300 years old! So young, so reckless, so irresponsible.

Yes, I wonder a lot ... more some days that others ... sometimes merely because the calendar gives reason to.

Crimes against the future

Even though it's happening, we're not ready for this. There are lots of crimes against now: speeding, breaking & entering, theft, grand larceny, fraud, murder. They're bad, all of them. OK, if they weren't they wouldn't be crimes, right? Yeah, and there are some places that these are more widespread than others, but they are all things that we don't agree with and that we do agree are not good for any of is. Hence, they're forbidden. They've been declared crimes and we sleep better at night knowing that, though too many people in too many places have to take their guns to bed to ensure that we're all straight on that.

And that's the problem. Not that people are taking their guns to bed ... what goes on behind closed doors should be of interest to no one, regardless of how sick or kinky it might be. No ... that's all about now.

No, I'm more concerned about what's to come. We give way too low priority to that. What about illegal clearing of the rain forests. Sure, somebody's getting robbed, but more importantly, a whole ecosystem is getting ruined and future generations are going to pay for it ways we haven't even begun to imagine. Or, what about the short-term accounting practices that we've instituted. We're screwing our kids and grandkids. I'm not very happy about that. One of the things I thought I could do when I had children, was that I'd leave them a better world than I found. But that's not going to happen. Other folks have decided that their own current benefit is more important than the fate of my kids and grandkids. I'm wondering who gave them the right.

Well, it turns out, they really don't have the right. They are legally within their "rights", whatever that means, but truth be told, they are screwing with my family ... immediate and potential, and I'm not convinced that that's a good thing. I think that crimes against the future: deforestation, long-term debt, speculation, promotion of the use of unrenewable energies ... the list goes on ... are actually every bit as despicable as the so-called "crimes against humanity". After all, humanity has a future ... or at least we did until it was decided that money was more important than sustainability, for example.

No, I'm not disturbed by the reports of catastrophes per se, as I said a couple of posts ago. But, I am disturbed by the ignorance that allows decisions to be made today that have to be addressed later. I just hope my kids get more pissed off than I am.

Stuff it

Believe it or not, I could hear the tongues clucking, and even wagging, after reading my last post. Don't I have anything better to do that worry about a little trash along the highway? Sure I do, and I would certainly like to have the opportunity to devote my full worry-attention to it, but there is a fairly good number of people out there who are screwing up my schedule.

I don't think that places should necessarily be clean enough that you can eat off the floor. Nor do I believe that there isn't a certain bohemian charm to a certain level of chaos. And I'd be the last person to think that everyone should be as prussianly tidy as me. But what's the point? I don't get it. I have tried, I really have, but I don't understand the fascination with littering. Apparently a lot of people do it, too (at least judging by the roadside). So, I wonder, then, just what does it look like in their homes? Do they just drop empty boxes and wrappers on the floor? And if they don't do it there, why do they do it somewhere else?

The point I'm trying to make is that the mere fact that you do it says something about you that speaks louder than anything you may think you're saying otherwise. Actions always speak louder than words. Not just sometimes, always.

There are obviously a lot of things that I just don't get. So maybe this is just another one. But I don't think people who get caught doing it should be fined. You shouldn't be able to buy your way out of it. That's become our favorite form of punishment and it is quite obvious that that doesn't work even a little bit. No, they should have to go out and clean up the roadsides: first offence, 10 lbs; second offence, 20 lbs; third strike and you get a couple of kilometers assigned to you that you get to keep clean forever.